As soon as Zohran Mamdani took his seat in the Assembly, he proposed a measure that drew the ire of the real estate industry.
Mamdani has represented the 36th District in Queens since 2021.
In June of that year, he introduced a bill, alongside Sen. Jabari Brisport, that would bar landlords from forcing tenants to pay a broker fee. This came after the Real Estate Board of New York had successfully fought an interpretation of the 2019 rent law that requires landlords to cover the cost of broker commissions. (The bill has since been reintroduced but hasn’t come to a vote, and REBNY is now fighting a separate city law that requires the hiring party to pay a broker’s commission.)
The no-forced-fee bill is one of 21 that Mamdani introduced since joining the Assembly.
An analysis by The Real Deal found that he voted to approve nearly 3,600 bills, of which roughly 440 were vetoed by the governor. The rest were signed into law. He voted against 50 bills and was absent for 150 votes where a measure either was eventually signed or vetoed by the governor.
He has voted for measures both despised and championed by the real estate industry and hasn’t had much luck in getting his own bills to a vote. There were nearly 340 real estate-related bills that either became law or were vetoed by the governor during his terms; of these, he voted against three. He voted against a bill for the extension of a partial tax abatement for certain condos and co-ops. Two years later, however, he voted to approve another extension of the tax break.
He voted to approve a pair of bills in 2023 that landlords warned would spell disaster for rent-stabilized buildings. One measure broadened the definition of fraud in rent overcharge cases and created rules for setting new rents for vacant, rent-stabilized units that are combined with another unit. At the governor’s request, changes were made to that bill that softened the blow for owners. The governor vetoed the second measure, which would have allowed tenants to consult rent histories beyond the usual four-year lookback when seeking to calculate their legal rent after June 14, 2019.
Last year Mamdani voted in favor of extending the Industrial and Commercial Abatement Program, or ICAP, through 2029, something that was sought by the industry.
This year he was absent when the Assembly voted to approve an extension for a program that provides tax credits to out-of-state or downtown businesses that relocate to spots above 96th Street in Manhattan or one of the other boroughs, and the creation of a new incentive program for out-of-state businesses that move to New York. The program was a top priority for REBNY during the legislative session.
